


You Make Her Growl

by ddelusionall



Series: The Leopard Prowl [4]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bestiality, Bondage, Dom/sub Undertones, Dominance and Submission as power and rank not just sex, F/M, Falling In Love, Heterosexual Sex, Murder, Organized Crime, Prostitution, Rape/Non-con Elements, Running Away, Sex Club, Soulmates, Yunho is a crime boss, Yunho is an asshole, although it is only implied in this fic, change of heart, graphic descriptions of torture and murder, like really really really bad, settling down, there are worse things in this installment than that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:22:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23844400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddelusionall/pseuds/ddelusionall
Summary: Yunho finds his mate in one of his sex clubs, one of the human ones. Finding out how Kwon Yuri slipped under his nose is the start of everything changing.---This is the fic where Yunho has a personality epiphany. Yunho is an asshole in this fic. He does some dreadful things. I did my best to gloss over all of it, but still give enough details about it. I do use the word "cunt" in this fic because it's in line with his character. It is not used in the derogatory sense, and only as another way to say "pussy" because there aren't enough words to describe female anatomy that aren't inherently demeaning (seriously, wtf?) or weird ("wet folds" ... ew). Yuri is 19 and Yunho is 30.
Relationships: Jung Yunho/Kwon Yuri
Series: The Leopard Prowl [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718203





	1. Usually a few orgasms are enough to get her to be more friendly.

**Author's Note:**

> I am importing my stories from LiveJournal. The original fic can be found [here](http://be-ddelusionall.livejournal.com/).
> 
> I haven't read this story in a long time, so I may have missed some tags. Just let me know if I did.

Yunho is on vacation, which in his business means not to bother him unless someone needs to be killed. It has mostly been a good day: a quick check of numbers showed he's about 100 million won richer than yesterday, a pretty boy wearing nothing but chains and sex toys sucked on his dick for hours, and that troublesome manager of one of his clubs has somehow managed to fall upon his own knife, eliminating a thorn in Yunho's side without him having to leave the pretty boy all alone.

Technically he's not actually on vacation. It's hard to go on vacation when you practically run a country. On the human side of things, he's nothing more than a very successful businessman running clubs, strip joints, a few restaurants and hotels, and constantly rumored to be a smuggler of guns, people, and drugs. On the leopard side, he is a smuggler of guns, people, and drugs.

He controls every cat and every prowl in almost all of Japan. There's a stubborn prowl in Tokyo that's being a little bit reluctant to see him as leader and Dominant. But he wanted a vacation before he went down to deal with it.

But as with most of his vacations, he has a meeting that cannot be cancelled. It is a human meeting about merging with a group of sex clubs, or if he's honest taking over. Discreetly, of course. It would not do for his human reputation to be involved in what these particular sex clubs cater to. And since he's being honest, it's more of him telling the man he is going to take over his group of sex clubs and if he wants to fight about it, well Yunho is very good at getting exactly what he wants.

The meeting is set in a very private room with five guards at the doors. His guards have stopped quite a few assassination attempts; there are a lot of people that want him dead. A round table set for five, though only three chairs are taken. Yunho, Kouyou his assistant, and the man who he so graciously invited to the meeting to tell he is taking over his life's work before taking over his life's work. The lights in the room glow in shades of blue, keeping Yunho mostly in shadow. He's well-known, but he finds that others think it is intimidating. And he doesn’t really want the man’s attention on him. The lights help with that, but the naked girl inside the glass box above them is much more effective.

She is Gigi, well-known at this club for her long legs, her pretty mouth, and her willingness to do absolutely anything for an orgasm. Yunho likes her because she makes him a lot of money. Yunho usually has his performers dressed sexily or covered in some sort of toys, teasing in a way. But for her, the box is her toy, her method to tease. It's built with ridges on the bottom that she can ride, slide her slick pussy against to tease herself, and there's more than one glass dildo, all different shapes and sizes, for her to fuck herself on. There's one particular spot where she can twist in a way where one dildo is in her pussy and another one is in her ass. Yunho likes that she is creative.

Yunho also likes that this man cannot keep his eyes off her. He also likes that there are enough slits in the glass that they can hear her moan and whimper and watch her bring herself off over and over again before actually discussing any business.

There's a single moment after one of her orgasms that Yunho actually stops in the middle of a sentence and looks up at her. Really really looks at her.

For that little moment, she smells like a cat in heat.

It takes one more moment for him to sense her leopardess. And then he's angry because she is not supposed to be a cat. He cannot remember when she started working for him but he meets everyone so he can separate his cats from his humans. It’s bad when a cat prostitute accidentally changes in front of humans. It ups the body count unnecessarily.

And this girl has slipped right under his nose and that of his panther.

The next moment, the cat is gone and Gigi smells human again, feels human again and for everything that he knows, she is human again and he has to second-guess himself. Maybe he imagined it.

It takes Gigi a moment to recover, to lift her shivering body off a glass floor. She goes right above their guest, teases herself, ass and pussy, back and forth, with the wide head of a dildo. It's probably the largest one in the box, and she lowers herself down, stretching her ass wide. Her whimpers are almost painful, almost, but her fingers are on her clit, rubbing slow but firmly. She is probably still sensitive from her last orgasm. She goes so slow, slow enough that they can see her ass clenching around the toy. And then she sits, flushed on the floor of the box and rotates her hips. In only moments, she is orgasming again, actually dripping her release to the floor. She has all of their attention, and she absolutely knows it. But she has Yunho's because, again, for the briefest moment he can smell her cat.

She falls forward just enough to start fucking her ass on the large dildo. One hand goes to the glass for balance. She uses the other to shove two fingers in her pussy. They can hear how wet she is over her moans. The man whimpers. She smirks, and her eyes open and meet Yunho's gaze.

He lets his panther growl at her. Her eyes widen. There is fear there, and Yunho smirks at her. The little devious shit.

"I think we're done here," he says and gets up, Kouyou following him.

The man tries to mutter some sort of polite agreement. Yunho is not even out the door before that man is jerking himself off to the view above him. He turns to Kouyou and says, "That girl. I want her in my office in less than 10 minutes."

Kouyou bows and heads the opposite direction.

He tries to figure out how Gigi managed to hide from them. She's obviously very strong if she can do that but does that mean she's a spy? Or does that mean she doesn't know how strong she is? That is impossible because if she didn't know then Yunho would have sensed her the moment that he met her.

His panther is livid. Rightly so. But he is also very turned on by how she smells. Yunho is going to get his answers first, and then he'll fuck her, and then he'll decide if she deserves to die for hiding from him.

Yunho paces, something that he never ever does because he's always in control of everything and everyone, especially the people that work for him.

In seven minutes, Kouyou is back. He opens the office door, throws the still-naked girl inside, and then shuts it. Yunho does not need to tell him that he is not to be disturbed.

She smells like sex. His nostrils flare with it and his cat growls, clawing at the floor of his soul.

She's shaking, absolutely petrified. She curls up on the floor, her long hair covering most of her skin.

But she still smells human.

"What is your name?" Yunho asks, voice low.

"Gigi."

"Your real name."

She says nothing.

He growls at her, letting his cat and its power slam into her. She visibly shivers. And she fights it. But ultimately, she grounds out, "Kwon Yuri."

He is still growling. He has so many questions, and he hates that he has questions, he hates her for making him have questions about who she is and how she managed to hide her cat. He does not ask questions.

With her name, he can find everything else out himself.

He moves to her, grabs her by the hair and pulls her back toward the desk, ignoring her cry of pain. There's a collar and chain for his toys and he puts it around her neck and attaches her to the floor.

God, she smells delicious. But he's too angry. For the first time in his life, he is too angry to have sex. He ties her wrists together and her ankles and then pushes her head to the floor. He uses the chains to bind her until she can't move, kneeling, with her cheek against hardwood, back bowing and breasts hanging almost to the floor.

She is whimpering but not fighting. He wonders what she's thinking. He takes a gag for her mouth, blindfolds her, and because he's really really angry, he presses a vibrating plug into her ass and turns it up all the way. The last thing he adds is a vibrating patch right on her clit. It almost doesn't stick because she is so wet. The controls from the patch stay in his hand. And he turns the vibrations all the way up just to hear her scream through the gag. Her body is convulsing with an orgasm almost immediately, and she sags with whimpers into her bindings.

Yunho allows himself a taste, spreading her pussy just enough to lick at her. She's so wet and it smears on his chin. He presses two fingers inside her and sucks more of the taste from her.

This close all he can smell is cat.

His panther wants her.

Yunho isn't stupid though and he doesn't know who she is. So it's with great physical effort that he pulls himself away from her, lowers the vibrations on her clit, and sits at his desk. He licks his fingers clean and uses a handkerchief to wipe up the mess on his chin.

Her whimpers and orgasms create a very fine soundtrack to him working on discovering everything about her.

Kwon Yuri. She is from Goyang, just outside of Seoul. It's hard to find anything beyond that, but all that means that the girl is going to orgasm and suffer for longer, for as long as it takes him to find out everything about her.

She started working for him about eight years ago. And it's not until he sees her photo from her first day that he realizes why she slipped passed. She was only eleven. Her cat definitely had not surfaced yet. Still as a Dominant, he's very in tune with these things and he did not even notice when her leopardess surfaced.

It takes well into the early morning hours for him to find out that she was kicked out of her home. He doesn't know why, and he's going to have to ask her why. There's an active petition to have her name removed from their family.

She resurfaces sometime in Seoul with an actual work record at what looks like a restaurant, at least on paper, but he knows it is a place for child prostitutes. He's purchased many of his workers from there, but not her.

And then she's in Japan. There's no record of her arriving and no record of her until she started working for Yunho. He bought her from someone that ended up being more trouble than he was worth and Yunho is now unable to ask anyone but the fish where he got her from.

She is now nineteen, much older than Yunho usually employs at this particular club, but customers love her. She has the most requests, and the club charges the highest price to spend a night with her of all the whores except the pretty boy who had been sucking on Yunho earlier. It's amusing to learn that they have a bit of a competition between them to who can bring in the most money. Pretty Gigi and her long legs usually wins.

It's early in the morning when Yunho decides that she is not a risk to him or his panther. Now it's time to learn how she managed to hide her leopardess from him. She can't exactly talk in her current bindings.

He releases Yuri from everything except the collar and the patch on her clit. Her thighs are so wet from her releases. She has fallen unconscious a few times, snapped back alert by the vibrations on her clit. She's too exhausted to hide her cat smell now and Yunho lets himself lick it up, off her smooth thighs and out of her deep red cunt. He leaves bites up and down her thighs and closes his mouth over her to suck harshly at her pussy and clit. He can press four fingers inside her gash and two in her ass. He desperately wants to fuck her, but he refuses to put himself in a vulnerable situation with a cat that is obviously strong.

With as wide and gaping and loose as she is right now, he knows it'll be much better if he waits a few hours anyway.

Yuri shivers, skin going pink and covered in gooseflesh. A sliver of concern weaves through his lust. He thinks of ignoring it, but he’s sure that she will be more willing to talk if she is somewhat comfortable. Yunho removes his button-down shirt and slips it over her naked body. She trembles in his arms, kicking as much as she can when he lifts her up.

"Now, now. Stop that," he says. It is less of a command and more humor based. He admires someone that refuses to give up. He sits in his chair with her in his lap, arms around her body fingers teasing the wetness of her cunt. They come out wet and he feels it on his pants. His cock is throbbing. But he needs answers.

He takes a bottle of water from a small fridge next to his desk and opens it for her. Even if she's a little confused at the treatment, she takes it and drinks the entire bottle. She's probably starving too.

“So now tell me about your leopardess.”

She fights that command and then sighs when he throws all of his panther strength at her. "I noticed her when I was 11."

"That young?"

“Yeah. But it was not strange for me because there are so many other things already wrong with me that why not? Why should not be able to turn into a cat? I was already a demon so--”

“Demon?”

Yuri swallows. “My father molested me and my mother refused to see that it was his fault. I was a demon sent to tempt them, to tempt him away from her. Priests were called to exorcise the demon from me and when my father still could not stop touching me, the only option was to send me away.”

“You were kicked out?”

“That’s the nice way to say it. I came home from school only to find my mother refusing to acknowledge my existence. She had no daughter. She was pregnant with her first baby. I was crazy.”

Yunho hugs her. Holds her much closer than he should as she cries. He’s pretty sure her tears are just because she is so exhausted and not really from any emotions. He can already tell that she is stronger than that. It takes a little while for her to calm down enough that he can ask how she got to Japan.

“I spent most of my childhood being told how dirty I was and then spent the rest of it being used for how dirty I was. I was passed around, money changes hands. It is no different than anyone else who is employed by you.”

He snorts.

“I am lucky that you have let me stay for so long.”

“I am lucky that Gigi makes me so much money.”

It is a bit strange how relaxed she is in his lap. Her fingers are actually tracing the lines of his ribbed tank top, up his chest and then over to a nipple. It’s almost unconscious. It is also a bit strange how relaxed Yunho is with her in his lap. His hold on her is loose but tight enough to keep her steady. One hand continues to pet her hair, fingers running through the long lengths, and then down the smooth skin of her back. The other is in just the right spot to slip his fingers over the inside of her thighs. She is incredibly gorgeous and Yunho is not surprised that she is so popular.

"Your cat?" he prompts.

Yuri shrugs. "She was just there one day about a week or so after I started working here. I don't know much about what that means, but I started sensing others. I wanted to talk to other people but my leopardess, she says that it's not a good idea and to stay hidden, so she hides herself. Every now and then I will change into her form. I like it. It lets me escape a little."

"So you don't know how strong you are?"

"No. I know how strong I am. I learned from watching others, from watching you, that not everyone can do what I can do with my leopardess. She doesn't like you, not at all. She isn't afraid of anything, but you make her growl."

"She's hiding from me still even now."

"She isn't hiding. She just doesn't like you."

"I can barely sense that she's there and you tell me she's not hiding?"

Yuri looks up and meets his eyes. Or are they her cat's eyes? Speckled gold and brown. Beautiful, and then Yunho picks up a cat. And the hate. It’s very easy to see the golden hue of her coat, and the brightness of her eyes. It’s a brief moment before the leopardess lunges at him. Metaphysically, Yuri is clawing his eyes out.

He chuckles and does not try to calm the cat down or try to overpower her. Instead, Yunho does the same with his panther and let's Yuri see him, just enough that she can see him sitting on his back feet. He isn’t growling at her, just waiting and watching. Yunho always has walls of some sort up. This is no different. But Yuri gets a glimpse.

And then she's growling, her eyes narrowed. It’s a noise that sounds loud in the quiet that had settled. It stops pretty quickly and she buries her face against his chest and apologizes. Her cat is not gone anymore to where Yunho cannot sense her, but she is pacing in Yuri’s soul, muscles tense, back and forth, her tail almost snapping. Metaphysically, he can hear the sound of her claws clicking against the ground. She is protecting Yuri, daring him to even try.

Yunho, both cat and human, sit back and admire her. She is really really strong. And beautiful, with a dark tan coat and large whirled spots of black. She is in perfect form and Yunho’s panther wants her enough that Yunho has to collar him, keep him from leaping at her. He’s not quite sure what will happen if he allows it, but even the fact that his panther wants to is a bit alarming.

"Gorgeous," he says and almost breathes against the top of her head.

She takes a deep breath. "You are Dominant, and she hates that."

He laughs. "She is strong, much stronger than most cats I have met." It's with a strange and sinking realization that Yunho understands that he could never order this cat around and he couldn't ever do anything but obey everything she says. It's sort of terrifying.

He clears his throat. "I'm commandeering your services for a little while."

"What?" She lifts her head.

He pushes a button on his desk and a second later Kouyou is there. He pushes her off his lap. With a hand wrapped around the collar, he drags her to the door. She's fighting again but not very much.

"Take her to my penthouse. Anyone that touches her, fucks her, or even looks at her funny, you have my permission to maim in anyway that you like."

Kouyou smiles. “Thank you, sir.”

She is still demanding answers from him as Kouyou takes the chain, leads her away and shuts the door.

Yunho sits hard on his desk and rubs his face with his hands. He had to get her out of there and away from him. Besides the obvious hatred, everything about her cat and everything about her has him thinking mate. An actual mate. He does not need a mate and he does not want a mate. But this girl. He's tender with her and overprotective. He loves the way she smells and tastes.

Fuck, this is bad. Bad, so very bad.

The only consolation he has is that her leopardess hates him. Why, he doesn't know, but she's strong enough to have her own feelings and strong enough to hide herself. Strong enough to keep him out, keep out the idea of them being mates. Or maybe the cat does know that they are mates. Maybe she is doing as she should and protecting her human, protecting her from Yunho.

He growls in frustration.

His office still smells like her and his cock is still throbbing.

\---

He purposely avoids going to his penthouse until the next day, when he thinks for a moment that he might have control of himself.

Kouyou is there, at his bedroom door, guarding the girl as he should. There is blood on his white shirt, and Yunho decides not to ask.

He presses a hand to the panel by the door and it beeps green at him and allows him to enter his bedroom.

Kwon Yuri is in his bed. Asleep. Brown hair spread out over his white pillows. She smells so good. He can’t remember whatever his room used to smell like. All he can smell is just her her her her her her her.

He growls. The noise wakes her up. She sits up straight with a little cry, the white blanket falling around her waist. She's naked, her skin flushed. Her breasts are hidden behind her hair that’s a bit messy. She blinks a few times, and then huffs and falls back to the mattress, the blanket staying just at her hips.

Still growling, he stalks to the bed. Halfway there, he shimmers to his dark brown panther form and then back as a human. It's the quickest way to get him naked.

Yuri doesn't even try to get away from him, moving the blankets and spreading her legs in invitation. He kneels on the bed and crawls to her. The first thing he does is drop his head to her cunt and lick at her. She smells so good as a human but as a cat it's intoxicating. And he can smell her which means her cat isn’t really hiding right now.

A careful reminder that he is supposed to keep his distance from the girl that might be his mate slithers through his mind.

He ignores it because he spent the last two days attempting to controlling himself.

He grips her thighs, spreading her more until her knees bend on their own and she’s split open for him. He pushes two fingers into her. It's tight enough to make her gasp, but he's so glad he waited and not fucked her yesterday. With his mouth sucking on her clit and fingers in her pussy, she is squirming, pulling on his hair, canting her hips up and sliding herself against his mouth. He is not sure how much of her moans and whimpers are real and how much of them are faked. But she tastes so good that he doesn't care and he keeps eating her out.

He is so used to it always being fake that he's actually surprised when she orgasms and his mouth is flooded with her taste.

He growls against her cunt, and her moans are louder, her thighs shivering next to his head. He pulls himself away, crawls over her. He hooks her knees at his elbows and just slides his dick right inside her. Her back arches off the bed with a cry before she settles down, chest heaving with her gasps. He grips one of her breasts, squeezing the nipple.

She sighs, eyes fluttering open. "Good morning," she says with a smile.

Yunho grunts out a laugh.

She puts her arms above her head and stretches her body, tightening around his dick in just the perfect way to make him moan.

"Can you have sex with me as a panther?" she asks.

"Yes, but I'm not going to."

"Why not?"

He does not say anything about how they might be mates. "Because I don't want to right now. I'd like to finish this as we are."

"Can I turn into my leopardess right now and you can have sex with her?"

"Please don't. For as much as she hates me, she's going to claw my guts out and then I would have to kill you."

She laughs, a beautiful beautiful sound. Yunho moans, fights the urge to kiss her, and instead grips behind her knees so he can fuck her harder. He does not last as long as he wants, definitely not long enough to make a good impression but she's so beautiful when she's so relaxed, and she's so beautiful when she is tight with another orgasm, moaning her way to another release.

He comes inside her, curling over her, mouth at her shoulder. He wants a kiss. But as his pet, his girl, his toy, he does not get to kiss. As his mate ... god, he should not even be thinking that. He groans and collapses on top of her. But she is so ... just perfect.

"I hate to break your afterglow but you stink and you need to shower."

Yunho waits to be angry for such insolence. Instead all he manages to do is laugh. He is in deep shit.

He pulls out of her slowly, letting himself shiver with how she grips him. He falls to the side, arm over his face and tries to get control of himself. Fingers dance up his chest.

Yuri sighs.

Yunho moves his arm enough to look at her with one eye. "What?"

"She still hates you. Usually a few orgasms are enough to get her to be more friendly. You’ll have to do better next time."

Yunho growls, but even she can tell that it’s half-hearted and there’s no real threat behind it.

"Do you hate me?"

She doesn't answer.

"I guess that means it takes more than just orgasms to get you to be more friendly."

"Orgasms are just orgasms," she says with a shrug.

Yunho acknowledges that. He turns on his side and props up on his elbow. "Come take a bath with me."

"Is that an order?"

He smiles. "No. Unless you say no."

She huffs, blowing hair from her face. "Fine."

He watches her roll away from him and stand. Her legs are a little wobbly. Smirking, he follows after her. She is the one that starts the water in the tub. And she is the one to put out towels. To Yunho, it feels like she's been there his entire life.

He is in deep, deep shit.

She sinks into the warm water before the tub is full. The bathroom echoes with her sigh of contentment. Yunho smiles and follows her in. The tub is large enough for him to stretch out under water, so there isn’t really even a reason for them to touch. But as soon as he is settled, arms over the edges, Yuri is curling up against his chest, arms around his waist.

He laughs, touching a wet hand to hair that is still dry. “You don’t have to do this to make me happy, you know.”

“You have a nice body, you know.”

He frowns. “Seriously. Be yourself. Don’t just--”

She pushes up on his chest and glares at him. “How do you know I’m not just being myself?”

“I guess I don’t.”

“Then you don’t get to complain. Shut up. You’re comfortable.” She lays back against him, legs sliding over his, breasts pushed into his body.

He huffs. _Who exactly is in control here?_

Maybe he doesn’t care so much. He wraps his arms around her and settles in the tub to relax. He is only just beginning to feel better when she suddenly moves.

“Okay. Time to wash. Did you even shower yesterday? God.”

He does not tell her that he didn’t because he was avoiding her. “I do not stink that bad.”

She glances at him with an eyebrow raised.

“I don’t. I think it might be that your cat doesn’t like the way I smell.”

“Oh, she does--”

Yunho almost chokes.

“--but I don’t like the way you smell.” She pours a liberal amount of bodywash into a loufa and almost attacks his skin with it, starting at his shoulders.

He is too shocked that her cat likes his smell. He obeys her orders to move, stand, rinse, repeat. She pauses in her washing only once, after his cock is wiped clean, and then her mouth is on him, sucking at him for only a moment before he’s hard as a rock from just a touch of her lips and tongue, and then runs soap up him and over his balls.

When she is satisfied that he is clean enough, she demands that he wash her hair.

“And if you plan on keeping me here for a while, I want my shampoo and bodywash. I don’t want to smell like you.”

“Yes, darling,” he says with a smile and gets an elbow in his gut for the sarcasm.

“I’m serious. You want me here, to pleasure you whenever you want, then I need to--”

“That is not why you’re here,” Yunho says and then bites his lip and mentally curses.

“Then why?”

Yunho shuts his eyes and does not answer. He will not look like a jealous asshole, because he really doesn’t want anyone else touching her and ...

She huffs when he doesn’t answer. “Fine. Does that mean I can have some clothes?”

“You can have whatever you want.”

She spins around, soap dribbling down her shoulder and breasts. Yunho swallows at how beautiful she looks in the natural light surrounding them. “Liar.”

Yunho lifts an eyebrow. “Tell me. I’ll get it for you.”

“Chocolate ice cream.”

“What else?”

“Dokbokki.”

“I’ll have the chefs make it for dinner. And?”

“Roses.”

“I’ll have the room filled with them.”

“What is wrong with you?” She crosses her arms, under her breasts, and Yunho just can’t ignore that. He uses both hands, fingers sliding down the curves in soft touch, and then a firm grip on her nipples. Her eyes shut with a quiet moan.

“Nothing is wrong with me. It just takes more than orgasms to make you friendlier.”

She snorts. “So you’re going to buy my love, is that it?”

“No. But at least make you content enough that you won’t try to bash my head in with something heavy while I sleep.”

She puts her hands on his shoulders with a cry and pushes. It startles him enough that he ducks into the water, spluttering as he surfaces. She is climbing from the tub, soap dripping down her body and long legs. His cock throbs and his cat growls. He followers her to the shower, and as soon as they’ve both rinsed the soap from their bodies, Yunho is on his knees, face between her thighs, sucking at her and teasing her until the bathroom echoes with her cries and her orgasms are covering his chin with her taste.

\---

He does not realize the effect Yuri is having on him until the next day, when a man who knows better actually tries to swindle Yunho. It’s with a heavy sigh that he allows Kouyou to dispose of him. He had liked that man.

“It’s the smile, sir,” Kouyou says, pausing to lick blood off his fingers to smirk at him.

“Smile?”

“Yes. You’ve been smiling all day.”

Well, fuck.

Yunho sighs. He is going to have to work on that.

“Don’t say I blame you, with that pretty girl in your bed. Even I’d like to fuck--”

Yunho growls. “Do not finish that sentence.”

Kouyou smirks at him. “You know cock does it better for me. But that was a very quick protective reaction.”

Yunho knows this. And he knows why. But he does not tell Kouyou about Yuri being his mate. Kouyou is his right-hand man and leopard, the most trusted of anyone, but not with something like that. Not with something that could easily bring him to his knees.

With his reactions so far though, Kouyou doesn’t need to know that Yuri is his mate to take advantage of him. Yunho is sure the only person who knows about her in his penthouse is Kouyou and all the servants. Fuck. Too many people.

He's going to have to act like he always does, like ordering a boy to suck on his dick while he takes over companies and makes a lot of money.

Maybe he has enough money.

Did he just think that? Did he just think that he was going to stop doing what he does just because of Yuri?

She is mate. Mate is all that matters.

It bothers him through the entire day because yesterday he was just fine: ruthless, in control, powerful.

And now he's having thoughts of doing nothing but laying in the sun with Yuri curled up next to him.

Well, his vacation is over.

To make himself feel normal, he schedules a flight for Tokyo, lands before the end of the day and has the prowl down there destroyed before the end of the week. He makes the so-called leader watch as he rips apart his cats and then slowly kills his mate. He uses teeth and claws to do it and makes him listen to her beg for death. He ignores the part of his brain that tries to turn the woman’s body into Yuri’s body. And when he throws up later, alone and shaking, he says it’s because someone tried to poison him. Not from the guilt of what he did.

To prove it more to himself, he stays there for three days until cats that he allows to survive acknowledge his dominance. He parades their previous leader are around on a leash, bends him over desks and any surface he can. They watch as he bites into his neck more than once, claiming him not as a mate but as his, belonging to him, the Dominant. And then he does the same thing to all the rest of them until they are all sporting scars and cuts on their necks, showing who is in charge.

He flies back to Osaka. He does not go to his penthouse, but one of his clubs, where he lives and works and fucks until the businesses from Tokyo are all in alignment, and instead of making 100 million won extra every day, he is making 112 million.

Yunho does not feel better. His cat cannot relax, not like he usually does after a takeover and definitely not the way he soaks up the power after a few dozen kills.

But eventually Yunho goes back to his penthouse. He has to because he lives there, but also because he has to face what he's done and what he's become. He is hiding from his mate, and his soul is no longer hidden. It’s out in plain sight and it makes him sick.

Kouyou is not there to guard the door, though it doesn’t much matter since the reader will only allow Yunho in. Kouyou is still reveling from their success in Tokyo. Yunho last saw him with his teeth around a young boy’s throat.

Yunho is shaking as he presses his palm to the reader. The door opens. He’s such a different person than the last time he opened this door. He’s almost glad the reader cannot tell. Will his mate? What will she think of him after she knows what he has done? She will never want to be his mate, that’s for certain.

And she is all that he can smell. The room doesn't even smell like him anymore. And there are roses all over the room, but he can’t smell their sweetness. Only hers. She sits on his bed with her legs crossed, a pillow on her lap. She is dressed in a pretty pink dress, her bare feet peeking from under the pillow. It looks like she was reading a book, but he doesn't really know because he can't take his eyes off of her. Her hair is getting long, and he realizes that he's been gone for almost a month and he left without saying goodbye, left without an explanation, and she's been a prisoner in this room for almost a month.

She stares at him, at first in shock and then in anger. She flings herself off the bed and stomps over to him and actually smacks him right in the face.

He keeps his head turned to the side because he can't even look at her and he doesn't deserve to look at her.

And then her arms are around his waist and her face is pressed against his chest and she is cursing at him and demanding answers. And crying.

He can't hold her. He doesn't deserve to hold her.

When she finally realizes that he is not going to hold her, she pushes away from him, steps back, crosses her arms and glares. Soon her tears stop.

He tries to smile because he knows how much she's hurting and she is still being defiant.

Why she' is hurting is beyond him. They had only spent a single day together before he left.

"You never got me chocolate ice cream, you bastard."

Yunho shuts his eyes. The turmoil in his soul and that's all she cares about?

"I am sorry,” he gasps.

It physically hurts to say it, and his voice breaks between words. He is sure that he has never said before in his life, at least not with a cutting or sarcastic edge to it. He staggers toward her but does not touch her before sitting on the bed.

He doesn't deserve to look at her but he can't do anything else. She's so pretty. Her pink dress hits her mid thigh, and her legs are so strong and so long. Her arms crossed under such perfect breasts.

She unclenches a little and worry creeps into her face. He has no right to have this beautiful woman worried about him.

"I'm sorry," he says again.

"Why do I feel like this isn't about the chocolate ice cream?"

"It's not about the chocolate ice cream," he whispers.

She takes a step like she wants to come to him and he holds up a hand and tells her no.

"Stay there, please. That's not a command but just don't touch me, please."

"Yunho, I don't--"

He shakes his head. "I don't know what to do anymore and it's all your fault. Because nothing that I do and nothing that I did and nothing that I need to keep doing to have all of this,"--he waves his hand around his penthouse--"is fair to you. It's not really fair to anybody else but listen to me talking about what's fair and what's not fair when all I care about, what I should care about, is how to make more money. Money is all that matters in my life, money and power and control and you have stripped me of all of that in a second." He snaps his fingers. "Even this isn't fair because you have no idea what I'm talking about."

Yunho stands on shaky legs and then decides that standing is a bad idea and falls to his knees instead. He wants to move closer to her but he doesn't deserve to be closer to her. With the reluctant help of his panther, he destroys all of his barriers. It is so hard to destroy them all, pull them all down, so when he looks up at her, he looks at her as his mate instead of her employer, instead of her owner, instead of the next dick inside of her.

"I really hope that your beautiful leopardess still hates my guts because right now that is all that I deserve from you."

His panther is a bit angry at him but that's understandable. His panther is also incredibly nervous and hates being nervous and insecure. He paces in Yunho's soul. And it's the first time that he has ever felt hope from his cat.

Yuri is crying. He aches to hold her, but he can't move. This is not his decision. This is her decision, and in order to make a good decision, she needs to know what he's done.

"You were born powerful," he says. "Your cat, your gorgeous leopardess, just came out powerful. She always has been. I have not always been powerful. I have been weak and spent too much time ruled by others. I vowed that I would not stay that way. I have lied and cheated, I have killed, murdered, swindled, bribed, terrorized, and clawed my way through other people's bodies and souls just to be where I am. I make money off of other people’s suffering and I don't care because it's what I want. I am the sole Dominant leader in this country. I have wanted nothing else in my life until you, until this moment. But what does that mean to you because you're one of the other people's bodies and souls that I've destroyed in order to make money?"

She swallows and takes a deep breath. "You are an asshole."

He nods. "And I can't even tell you how many people I have killed for calling me that to my face and not to my face. I don't deserve you and I want you to tell me what you want to do."

She still doesn't say anything, at least she isn't crying anymore, at least not physically. He watches her for a moment and then realizes that he can feel her leopardess almost as clearly as he can feel his own leopard. She is still pacing and growling, hissing at him. She is probably even angrier than before.

He's so glad because then that means that she still hates him and will keep Yuri away from him, away from him hurting her more.

"I spent the last three weeks in Tokyo destroying people's lives for a tiny tiny little bit of power and money that didn't matter, that doesn't matter, just to keep from this moment. My life means absolutely nothing right now outside of this moment. I don't say that to try to change your mind. I totally deserve your hate, I completely deserve your anger, and I definitely do not deserve your forgiveness. In one day, I killed six cats, just because they dared to defy me. I killed their leader's mate right in front of him. I made him watch me disembowel her and let the rest of my cats eat her, his mate, the love of his life. I thought of someone doing that to you and forced myself to not care. I turned him into my little bitch. I promised that I would kill him so he would not have to live without her and then I did not. I crippled him just for a little bit more power. And left him."

Yunho is crying again. He does not care. He lets the tears drip down his face without wiping them away.

"I will do whatever you want me to do. I will give you enough money for you to be rich and happy away from me wherever you want. Paris, London, New York. You can have everything that you want and money for the rest of your life to get whatever you want. You don't have to be a whore anymore and you don't have to pleasure men in order to eat, in order to sleep or survive." He takes a very deep breath, gasping on it for a second before he can keep talking. "Everything about me says that you are my mate. But no one, and definitely not you, deserves to have whatever I am as a mate, whatever monster I've become. You're too perfect and too precious and too pretty to be defiled by me any longer. Tell me what you want and I will obey."

She is silent for a long time. They both are. They are both crying. With a soft growl, she wipes at her cheek and demands. "Change into your panther.”

“What?”

“Change into your panther.”

He's transformed before she can finish repeating it and he sits back on paws, his tail swishing behind him. She stares at him for a really long time. To his surprise, she also shimmers in the sunlight. Her gorgeous tan leopardess is in her spot. She is strong. Almost stronger than him. Perfect form, perfect legs and tail and neck.

Yunho whimpers and drops his head to the floor and onto his paws.

She growls at him and then moves to him. He's halfway back up to sitting when she slashes at him with her front paw with a heavy cry. He takes it and feels her claws cut into his cheek, and then he drops back to the ground. She stands over him just close enough that he can lick her front paw, the one that had swiped him. He does with a whine. He does not know how to apologize in his panther form. He has never had to.

She huffs. It's a very human noise. And then she leans down just far enough to lick at the cuts on his cheeks. They are already healing.

He cannot tell if the pretty cat actually does hate him. She is very good at hiding herself. As a panther, he is feeling hope, but as a human, he is feeling despair. He does not deserve this woman's forgiveness.

She suddenly drops to the ground and curls up against hi side. He takes a very deep breath. She doesn't look at him and curls away from him but the curve of her spine is pressed right against his body. It is definitely instinct to curl up against her. He licks her neck and gets a growl and snap of teeth for the effort. So not completely forgiven, but hope. Maybe.

He's almost too tired to transform back so he doesn't and lays with her as a cat where neither of them have to talk and all they can do is think. And Yunho does think, about what he’s done. He’s glad he’s a panther and can’t cry.

It's close to an hour later before she moves and then she is human again, beautiful and naked curled up against the side. He isn't sure if he should transform too.

She runs her hand down his back, and then scratches. It feels so good and not something that Yunho experiences often. He arches into the touches and he realizes that he's purring.

“I don't have to be a whore anymore,” she says. “I like that idea but if I don't have to be a whore anymore then you don't have to be a murdering business tycoon anymore.”

Confused, Yunho transforms. Her fingers don't stop sliding down his spine, scratching up his sides. It's distracting him from what she said, but he lets himself enjoy it because he probably won't ever get to enjoy it again.

"What do you mean?" he asks as soon as he can form the sentence.

"I've been a whore for my entire life,” she says, “from the second my dad slipped his fingers inside me when I was three I have always been a whore and you have always been a murdering business tycoon. Why am I the only one that gets to start over? Why can't we both?"

He forces himself to sit up and lean against the bed with his head back. He is more than surprised when she climbs into his lap. He fights the urge to hold her, and he would have won if it wasn't for her. She takes both of his hands and puts them around her waist and she presses her face against his chest.

Yunho holds his breath. It takes a minute for him to relax and actually hold her, hug her close and let his hands slide up and down her back, through her soft hair.

“Why can't we both start over?”

“You don't deserve--”

She sits up with a growl and smacks his chest. "Shut up. You don't get to tell me that and you don't get to decide that. You told me to tell you what to do and I'm telling you what to do. Start over with me. I may not have murdered people and I may not have done anything close to the terror that you have done but that doesn't mean that I'm happy with the things that I've done. That doesn't mean that I'm happy that I used to con other girls out of their money, steal it right out sometimes, just so I could have it. It doesn't mean that I'm happy as one of your most popular whores. Little Taehyung has his pretty little mouth but I have the experience to know what to do with mine how to make men come in only a few moments. But that doesn’t make me happy."

Yunho has to take a deep breath to keep himself from going and looking up every single man that has ever been with his Yuri and cutting off their dicks.

She smiles because she can feel his jealousy and she can feel how angry it makes him. Yunho has still not put back up his walls and everything that he thinks and feels is there for her to understand.

"I don't want to do that anymore. And maybe I don't even want to do anything with you. My cat is reluctant but she has acknowledged that it is possible that you are our mate. She isn't going to allow you to claim us in any way shape or form until she is ready for it."

"As it should be but--"

"No," she says and hits him again little harder. Hard enough that there's a sharp sting in his skin that has him wincing. She smiles and rubs the spot.

"We start over," she says. "We both start over. Together maybe at first, maybe longer but mate is important. And if you mean this, then you will do everything you can to show me the I am important to you."

He tries to smile but it's a little bit difficult when he's crying again. "I don't deserve you at all."

"Maybe that will keep you from being an asshole." She pats his cheek and climbs off lap. He wants to pull her body to him and lick at her but he doesn't and lets her walk away.

She picks up the dress that had fallen off of her when she transformed and she makes a face at it. "It ripped, dammit. I love this dress. Buy me another one."

Yunho swallows roughly. "A million more."

"What the hell would I do with a million pink summer dresses?" She props a hand on her hip and glares at him.

"Okay just one more then. And chocolate ice cream. I owe you chocolate ice cream."

"You owe me a million chocolate ice creams."

He finally is able to laugh. And he holds out his hands and holds his breath. She looks at him for just a moment and then drops the torn dress and comes back into his arms.

"You're too good for me."

"And it looks like you are going to be spending the rest of your life proving that."

"I will. I promise."

She turns her head up, and then shifts so she's actually on her knees, straddling his thighs. She cups his cheek and she leans forward and presses their lips together. Yunho's throat closes and he's crying when she pulls away.

"I kissed you and you cry! What is wrong with you?" She smacks his chest over and over again until he gets her wrist in his hand and then he's pulling her up and they're twisting together and falling into the bed.

"Asshole. Really, what is wrong with you?"  
  
Yunho swallows deeply. "I'm in love. Apparently it makes people stupid."

She flushes, her skin turning pink on her cheeks. "You are so so stupid."

He smiles, softly touches her cheek and then leans down and kisses her again. It would also be so easy to just roll over and have sex with her but he can't just do that anymore especially not to her. They're mates. He will prove himself worthy enough to call her his mate before he expects her to even touch him again. These kisses are already way more than he expected after he first walked through that door.

They really shouldn't be spending this time making out though.

There's too much to do if they're both leaving. He knows he can't tell anybody. He just has to disappear because otherwise people will come and look for him. They may come and look for him anyway. He needs to decide where to go. Maybe down to Busan or down to a smaller place in Korea like Mokpo. Or even farther away from that. For a little while anyway. Korea's too close to Japan and he will constantly be looking over his shoulder. Maybe they'll disappear in New York for a little while.

He pulls away from Yuri's lips and thinks about it. Can he just walk away from all of this for her?

When she smiles at him, he knows that the answer is yes, and when she pulls him back for another kiss, he knows that he will do anything for her. Absolutely anything.

[Part 2](http://be-ddelusionall.livejournal.com/365413.html)

.


	2. This overprotective cat is my mate.

That night, they stayed at a cheap, ugly love motel smack dab in the middle of Seoul. Yunho left Japan constantly. His absence would not throw up any red flags for a little while. But in Seoul they would. He knew of the Dominant in this part of Seoul. They weren’t exactly friends. But he was stronger than Taeyang, so hopefully the other would stay away long enough for Yunho to get out of town as quickly as possible.

Yuri stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips. She glanced at the corny love phrases on the wall, smirked at the table covered in lube and toys.

“You take me to the nicest places,” she said and smiled at Yunho.

Yunho snorted. “It’s easy to pay in cash here. And it’s just for tonight.”

“Do you think the bed vibrates?”

“Probably. I won’t know. I’m going to sleep over there.” He pointed to a couch along the wall. It was neon green and obviously vinyl. Easy clean up. It would not be comfortable.

She frowned. “Why?”

“I’m not sure I can control myself sleeping next to you.”

It was her turn to scoff. “Trust me when I say that I can. Sleep on the bed, dumbass.”

“I’m not even sure I’ll sleep. I have too much to do.”

She crossed her arms, under her breasts, and god, that was so distracting. Yunho looked away, at their bags.

“I can’t just ... well, I can just disappear. But I have to disassemble everything, sell my business, redirect money to new accounts. Get us new phones. Just ... I need to do a lot of shit tonight. If everything goes the way I’m planning, and it usually does, I’ll be free of all of that in a week.”

She stared at him for a few long moments. And then she nodded. “That makes sense. Can you do all of that from a computer?”

“Most of it. I may have to stop at a bank or two here in Korea. I also need to make up a history for you, get you papers and documents. You don’t really exist right now. And if we’re leaving the country ...”

“I guess I need to start thinking more about life outside of a whore,” she said.

Yuri flopped on the bed, feet on the floor, hands above her head. The plain T-shirt she wore slid up her flat stomach and Yunho’s panther growled at him.

“Heard that,” she muttered with a smile.

“You’re sexy.”

“I know. Should I order some food?”

“That would be so wonderful. Just like you.”

She rolled her eyes, but Yunho felt her happiness at the corny compliment. He sat on the couch and pulled his laptop out of its bag. He needed a new one. He had no idea how traceable this one was. There were men and leopards that could find him if they looked.

Like Kouyou. As his assistant, Kouyou was a great asset. On the run, Kouyou was his greatest adversary.

He had to hurry.

\---

Changmin considered himself to be a fair leader. His prowl consisted of three other leopards and four leopardesses. There was only one mated pair in their midst: Eunhyuk and Donghae. The other leopard was Sungmin, and his leopardesses were Minji, Bom, Dara, and Chaerin.

None of them were anywhere near as strong as Changmin. For a leopard, he was rather young, only just twenty. Sungmin explained some things to him as they were officially establishing their prowl. Leopards are born strong, or they get strong by taking over other people’s territories.

Before Changmin really came into himself, Sungmin was in charge. Changmin wasn’t really sure if he was stronger since he technically took over Sungmin’s territory. But Sungmin wasn’t any weaker for allowing him to lead. Before Changmin, they weren’t really even a prowl. Just a few cats that lived near each other and met up sometimes.

He was still getting used to it all. Used to feeling them within his mind. Used to knowing where they always were. Used to cutting out EunHae when they decided they wanted to fuck. Again.

That’s why when his leopard grew agitated and annoyed, he knew something was up.

“Someone is here,” Sungmin said to him over the phone. “Someone strong. We can all feel it. Keep your guard up. I can’t get a sense of their intentions. They are here, they are not really hiding, but they also aren’t showing themselves. It’s been three days. If they were here on nice terms ... ”

Changmin huffed. It was hard to keep your guard up when you had finals looming. “I could try to find them.”

“Not smart. What if they mean you harm?”

“So I just stand here and wait until they attack?”

“I don’t know.” And Sungmin really sounded upset. “I have never, ever felt any cat this strong. Ever. I thought you were strong. I mean, you are, but this cat ... it’s like five of you.”

Changmin shut his eyes and tried his best to breathe and keep himself calm.

“I don’t think you’d be able to find them. I’ve been trying to narrow down their location, but it’s like they are everywhere.”

Changmin knew that feeling.

“I don’t think we’re going to contact them until they contact us. If they do. Maybe they’re just passing through.”

“Maybe they’re biding their time to kill us all.”

Sungmin growled. An order to shut his mouth.

And that was not okay. His leopard growled back.

“Shit, sorry, Changmin,” Sungmin said immediately. “I am on edge.”

“Yeah, me too. Look, I’m going to try to study. I have finals next week.”

“Stay alert.”

“You too.”

Changmin hung up his phone and chugged down about half of his latte. Being Dominant wasn’t too bad. He mostly just led meetings and helped the others when they needed him. They didn’t usually need him because they had been settled by the time he’d come into his leopard. But this was a new threat. How did he protect them from this? What if this very strong leopard wanted to fight him?

He did not really know how to fight. He did not know how to protect his prowl at all.

“Shim Changmin.”

Changmin looked up. The first thing he noticed about the couple standing at his table was that they were incredibly good looking, especially together. He was tall, short dark hair, a wide smile on his face. She was just shorter than him that they fit together, and her long hair was pulled up in a ponytail. They both wore jeans, both of them were in T-shirts. Hers yellow, his green. Very normal. Very non-descript

Except the absolute power exuding from them. That was the second thing he noticed.

He swallowed, eyes wide and his panther growled, low and deep.

The man’s smile fell for a moment, eyes narrowing. But there was a soft touch on his arm, from the woman, and the smile came back.

“Do you mind if we sit?” she asked.

Changmin did not know how to answer that. They were not ordering it. Just asking. And Changmin sort of waved his hand to the two chairs at the table.

At least they were in a library, in a public place. Not the place to cause a scene. They decided to approach him here and not a deserted street. That was good. Mostly.

“Thanks, Changmin-shi. My name is Kwon Yuri. This overprotective cat is my mate, Jung Yunho.”

Changmin choked on his spit. “J-Jung ... Y-Yunho?”

“You know who I am?”

Changmin attempted to swallow. “Um, ... sort of. Rumors. Just ... Japan. Aren’t you ... what ... oh shit.” He was going to die. Jung Yunho was going to rip out his throat and--

“Calm down,” Yunho said, and that was a bit of an order, and Changmin took a few deep breaths. But his heart was still pumping too fast. “We are not here to endanger you or your prowl. We have been moving here and there through Korea for a few weeks, trying to settle. I’ve been drawn to this little seaside village just ... well, let’s say it’s not exactly the normal place that I settle.”

“He is trying to ask for your permission to allow us to stay within your territory for a little while,” Kwon Yuri said.

Changmin attempted to swallow again. “Well, fuck.”

Yunho’s smile widened. “You’re pretty strong, Changmin-shi. A few weeks ago, I’d be down here trying to recruit you.”

Yuri huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Well, it’s true,” Yunho said, draping an arm over her shoulder. “Have you found your mate yet?”

Changmin shook his head quickly. “No.”

“Be glad. It changes your entire world and motivations.”

“Be glad?” Yuri said, shoving at Yunho’s side. “Be glad? You complete and utter--”

“Shh,” Yunho said. “We’re in a library.”

“You are an asshole,” Yuri whispered almost viciously.

Yunho smiled. “So, Changmin-shi. Is that okay? Can we stay?”

“I’m ... still pretty new. I don’t ... My cat is not happy. Neither is Sungmin’s. We ... we just ...”

“Your prowl is really small, and it’s pretty laid back, not a lot of hierarchy or problems in the ranks. It’s one reason why we were drawn to here. How long have you been Dominant?”

“Only ... a year. My cat surfaced when I was seventeen. Just three years ago. Sungmin told me that I ... that I was in charge.”

“Wow, you are really strong for being so new.”

“Sungmin is still mostly in charge,” Changmin said. “I’m in school.”

“I know. Top of your class too. Well done.”

Changmin tensed up. They had done their research on him. And his prowl. And probably all of their members.

“We do not want to hurt you. We are not here to take over or cause problems,” Yunho said, letting Changmin feel his sincerity. “But allowing us to stay may cause you problems. There are people after me. Other cats. Other humans. I’ve ... well, I’ve done some horrible things, Changmin-shi, and some of it may be trying to catch up to me. I promise if my presence here threatens your prowl in any way that we will leave.”

“Don’t decide now,” Yuri said. “Talk to your prowl. We have a hotel that we’re paying on a day-to-day basis. We’ll give you our cell numbers. Call us after you’ve talked to your prowl.”

Changmin nodded and took the proffered card that Yunho held out.

Yunho stood up first. “It was good to meet you.” He was so very gentle as Yuri stood too. But Yuri, Changmin suddenly noticed was strong. The amount of strength was not just from Yunho like he had assumed. But it was combined. Both of them were so strong.

Yunho’s arm went around her waist, and she shoved a hand in his back pocket. They left the library, and Changmin suddenly collapsed, head on the table. He was shaking, almost crying.

He’d just sat across from Jung Yunho and lived to tell about it.

He hadn’t been exactly honest. He knew exactly who Jung Yunho was. He was studying Japan and Korean crime families and their effect on the economy of Asia. He’d heard rumors that Jung Yunho had disappeared. And now, here he was, in their small little beach city.

His phone rang. Sungmin. He could feel Changmin’s anxiety.

Gathering up his books, he answered the call, “Sungmin. Fuck. Meeting. At yours. Now. Everyone.”

Sungmin wanted to ask, but Changmin had actually ordered it, thrown his power at Sungmin, which he never, ever did. Sungmin just said, “Yes, Dominant.” And then he hung up.

\---

“Poor kid,” Yuri said while flopping onto the hotel bed. “You scared him to death.”

“He knew who I was, so he was more scaring himself.”

She scoffed at him and then frowned. “Is it safe to stay here then, since he knows who you are?”

Yunho frowned and lay down next to her. Almost unconsciously, their hands found each other and fingers entwined.

“I’m not really sure. He’s studying crime families in an economics Masters program. He is really smart. If he and Sungmin tell us to go, we’ll go. I can already feel them gathering.”

“So we wait.”

“Yep.”

Yuri rolled to her side, propped up on her elbow. “Any ideas of what we can do while we wait?”

Her smile was anything but innocent, and lust curled in Yunho’s gut. It’d been a month. An entire month of nothing but kisses and hugs. Was it time? He wasn’t sure. They’d been on edge, on the run, here to there, for so long.

He frowned.

“What is that look for?” Yuri demanded and smacked his shoulder. “You don’t want me?”

“Oh god, yes, I do. And you know it, but ...”

Yuri crawled over him, settling knees over his waist and her hands on his chest. With a smirk, she pressed down on his crotch, head tilted back. His hands went to her hips and he moaned.

“Well?” she said, fingers sliding over his nipples through his T-shirt.

He swallowed. “Yeah, okay. Take these jeans off. I know you like them. I’m about to rip them.”

She laughed and tried to climb off him, but Yunho pulled her back, back to his mouth for a kiss, and then a longer kiss.

“Better here than the love motel? Remember that place? So romantic for you to take me there first.”

“I think I can still smell it.”

“In a few minutes, you better not be able to smell anything but me,” Yuri said and finally pulled away to take off her clothes.

\---

Changmin got used to the irritation. Mostly. His panther knew better than to challenge Yunho. So they allowed him to stay. With Yuri, his mate.

Changmin waited. He watched them closely. He had an outsider’s knowledge to everything that Jung Yunho was. He knew about the rumors of drug and human trafficking. He knew about the sex clubs and child prostitution rings. Yunho had never so much as been implicated in any of it. But his name cropped up enough that it couldn’t have been a coincidence.

And now Changmin knew why.

He never would have guessed that Jung Yunho, business tycoon and self-made man, was getting help from a metaphysical panther. But none of the crimes were visible now. None of the terror. None of the control. At least on the outside, Jung Yunho acted like he was happy and in love. He was happy and in love. Both of them were. He’d found his mate and just left everything else behind? Of everything that Changmin knew of Jung Yunho, it did not sound right. But it felt right. 

His phone buzzed at him. A text. Even with his phone in his pocket, he knew it was from Yunho. He absolutely oozed control, dominance, obedience. His panther grumbled. He did not like Yunho here. His cat was constantly ready for a fight. Changmin beat him down a lot.

He checked it and wondered if Yunho could read his mind.

**_All the rumors are true. Or they were true. Not anymore. I live for my mate. When you find a mate, you’ll understand._ **

Changmin wasn’t sure how to reply to that.

Another text came through before he could anyway.

**_There are only eight of you, in your prowl, right?_ **

_Yes._

**_Check your surroundings. There’s something lurking. I’m going to try to fish it out. It doesn’t feel friendly._ **

Changmin checked with his panther. He was already so annoyed at being in the same area as someone so dominant that it took a few moments to feel past that. To something else. To something strong. Stronger than him. Not as strong as Yunho.

He sent a prowl-wide text to everyone.

_There’s another cat else here. Doesn’t feel friendly. Yunho thinks the cat may be after him. Get together and stay indoors while Yunho checks it out._

He hit send, and no sooner than that did his entire soul shake with fear and pain. He gasped, breaking his phone when he gripped it too hard.

Shit.

Fuck.

It took too long to clear his head of the fear and pain that were not his.

Minzy. It was Minzy. In trouble. He could feel Dara’s fear too. Had she been there? Where was she?

Shit.

He lunged out of his apartment, and on four paws, ran to Sungmin’s, the prowl’s usual meeting house, as fast as he could. The back balcony door was open, and as soon as he was through, he felt Eunhyuk and Donghae on their way, following in their cat forms.

Chaerin and Bom were there, curled up with Sungmin.

Changmin curled up to his feet, slipping into his human form almost effortlessly. Almost. It dragged on him a bit to change twice in such a short time.

The first thing he did was join the other cats, curl up around them and attempt to do what Sungmin was doing and calming the girls down. He was better at it, since he was Dominant. A few moments later, Eunhyuk and Donghae were there. They weren’t as strong as Changmin, so they stayed in their cat forms and joined the pile.

Sungmin’s phone rang. He glanced at it and handed it to Changmin.

“Changmin?” Yuri said.

Changmin only growled.

“It’s Kouyou. If you know as much about Yunho as you say you do, then you know who that is. His street name is Uruha.”

Changmin’s face paled. The enforcer. Yunho’s knife. Or gun. Or chain. Or claw. Or whatever way he decided to kill you. The man was untraceable. There were over twenty known murders that were linked to him. Known murders. Who knew how many others? “Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed.”

“Two of my leopardesses are missing.”

“Yunho knows. He’ll fix this.”

Changmin swallowed. He didn’t like it, but the others in his prowl needed him too. They needed him to be strong and calming, even as his heart raced and fear crept into his mind.

\---

“The girls are both alive,” Yunho said, “but with Kouyou, they’d probably rather be dead.”

Yuri huffed.

Yunho smiled at her and cupped her face in his hands. “Do I have your permission to rip him to pieces?”

Yuri smiled and pressed a kiss to one of his hands. “Of course, you do. But I may get to him first.”

“You are staying here,” he said.

“In a hotel room that he probably knows about? Are you insane?”

“Please, stay ... I can find him.”

“And I can sneak up on him. At least a little bit. If my cat doesn’t want to be sensed, she won’t be sensed.”

He shut his eyes, and it was his panther that was more or less grudgingly admitting that she was right.

“Not through the front door. Rooftops. Let’s go.”

With a bit of a grin, she spun around and out the door. Yunho followed. It was almost too easy to narrow down where Kouyou was. They’d been partners long enough that Yunho knew exactly what he felt like. He was stronger now. He wondered if that meant he’d taken over some of the prowls in Japan.

They went away from the elevators and down the hall to an emergency exit. Instead of down, they went up to the roof. Once there, Yunho shimmered into his panther form. Yuri followed suit. He was about to lunge away, when she brushed up against him, and licked his face.

Yunho almost purred and returned the quick lick.

From the roof, it was easy to feel the direction to go to, but a bit difficult to get there. They ran on rooftops for as long as they could and then dropped between buildings to prowl around alleyways. They were getting closer.

His presence led Yunho to the boarded up door of a closed store. Yuri gave him another lick to his face and then went down toward the back, leaving Yunho to the front door.

Well, more like the front window. It was already broken.

He smelled Kouyou so easily. And the girls. They were so scared. So hurt.

For the last three weeks, they had been like his own prowl. 

“Here, kitty kitty,” Kouyou said.

Yunho growled.

One of the girls screamed.

That was enough. Yunho jumped through the window. As soon as pain from a knife flared over his side, he understood how not smart that was. He stumbled into the room, knocking into a shelf and sliding on the slick surface.

He got a glimpse of Kouyou and dove behind a shelf just as another knife shot his way. It missed.

Yunho shimmered back to human, the knife clanking to the floor. The wound was already healing, but fuck, it hurt. He thought of using the knife against him, but his cat was way more powerful than a knife.

“You should have known you couldn’t hide forever,” Kouyou said. “Pretty slick though. It took me about two weeks to realize you were actually gone. And with that whore of all things. What is she? Just a quick little fling? Someone from your hometown? Your mate? I still am not sure because you obviously aren’t mated.”

One of the girls screamed again.

“How long are you going to hide?” Kouyou said. “Until one of them is dead? I can speed this up if that’s the case.”

Yunho changed back to his panther and felt Kouyou do the same thing. He sprang from his hiding spot just in time to see his beautiful, gorgeous mate jump on Kouyou’s back. He had his claws in one of the girls, and ripped through her flesh to get Yuri off him.

It was a hard hit that had Yuri slamming into an old display case and landing hard on her side. Yunho fought the urge to go to her and lunged at Kouyou instead. They met with teeth and claws. Yuri attacked the back of him, getting a back kick to her side for her troubles. But it was enough.

With both of them, Kouyou still had a chance.

Yunho had seen him fight off six cats before.

In a moment, just the briefest second, Kouyou lunged for the two girls, both of whom were unconscious. His claws tore into one of their thighs, and then Yuri was on top of him again, trying to bite at his neck.

It was obvious that she’d never been in a fight before, but Yunho’s heart surged with love for her, for trying, for being so brave.

Again, Kouyou flung her off of him, claws going deep into her ribs. This time, she didn’t get up right away.

Yunho growled. Kouyou’s leopard almost grinned at him. He was between Yunho and Yuri and the girls.

Yunho was at a disadvantage.

But it was Yunho that Kouyou wanted. So it was Yunho that Kouyou attacked. Kouyou was a great fighter, always had been, and Yunho had fought by his side many many times. But Yunho was stronger. They moved through the store, knocking over shelves and swiping at each other easily.

Yuri, his beautiful mate, had moved to the girls. Even though she was bleeding heavily, she stood over them, growling at Kouyou to even dare. Fearless. Strong.

Yunho flooded with admiration for her, and attacked stronger, faster, harder.

Almost without warning, there were two more cats in the room with them. He recognized Changmin’s power, his black panther did not even pause before lunging at Kouyou. Together they beat him back, into a corner. He was still attacking, but on the losing side, defense more than offense.

Yunho stepped back.

It was Changmin’s prowl. Changmin’s leopardesses that had been attacked. The kill belonged to him.

But he hesitated, and Kouyou lunged, getting his jaws around Changmin’s neck. Changmin whimpered and fought back with his front paws, and Yunho pounced, digging his claws deep in Kouyou’s ribs and biting at his neck. He pulled, and then shook his head. With Kouyou physically weak, he threw all of his power at him with a strong order to let go. It took a few moments, but Kouyou finally released Changmin’s neck. He twisted his jaws and his neck and felt Kouyou’s bones snap under his strength. He dropped him.

Kouyou stayed still, body heaving with deep breaths.

Again, Yunho stepped back.

Kouyou growled, the sound low and gurgling with blood.

Changmin swayed where he stood.

Yunho tried not to order Changmin to kill him. The kid hadn’t ever had to do this before. He understood. To an extent. Kouyou had kidnapped and hurt two of Changmin’s prowl. Growling, Yunho pressed Changmin harder. Still not ordering. More of an encouragement.

Changmin did not want to. Every cat in the room could tell.

And then one of the girls was conscious again, whimpering and crying.

Changmin’s black panther growled, and a moment later, moved forward. It was quick, instinctive, to protect. To guard. To think of his prowl first. He opened his mouth around Kouyou’s head. The injured cat tried to attack, and then Changmin bit down, crushing his skull with a satisfying crunch.

Yunho took a deep breath of vindication.

Changmin staggered back from him, paws sliding on the floor. He moved as far as he could before he shimmered back to his human form, and then he was throwing up, back curling up as he emptied his stomach all over the dusty floor.

Yunho winced in sympathy and changed into his human form too. He glanced over at Sungmin and Yuri, both were helping the girls with their wounds, helping them change into their cat forms to help heal.

Yunho’s own cuts and scrapes were already mostly healed.

So were Changmin’s.

Yunho moved over to him and sat near him, but did not touch him. He did not want Changmin to think he was a threat.

But Changmin did not think that, and a moment later, he had his arms around Yunho’s bare waist, his face buried in his shoulder, and he was crying.

“I’m sorry,” Yunho said, rubbing his back. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

“I can’t ... Yunho, I can’t ... I can’t ... I can’t do that. Please. I can’t ...” His body lurched again, and he moved away just enough to throw up again.

“We need to get out of here,” Sungmin said. “I hear sirens.”

Yunho nodded. He pulled Changmin back against his body and tried to help soothe the human and the cat. The cat was curled up, happy to have saved his girls, but he did not like that anymore than human Changmin did. The panther understood it was necessary. But Changmin was not violent. Changmin was a student. And so young.

“Can you change back?” Yunho said. “We need to run.”

Changmin shuddered and he soaked in Yunho’s encouragement. The others had already changed and left, and Yuri stood waiting for them.

“Go,” Yunho said to his mate. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She didn’t seem happy, but she went, jumping from the window and running.

Yunho pulled Changmin to a sitting position and used his hands on his shoulders and face to get him to calm down even more. “A good Dominant always protects his prowl. I told you I’d take care of it, but you came anyway.”

“They were hurting,” he said.

Yunho nodded. “They were, and like a good Dominant, you came to their rescue. Sometimes that means death. Sometimes it doesn’t. Without you here, Kouyou may have beat me. He’s a very strong cat. He was. So thank you for coming.”

“Will this happen again?” Changmin asked, almost whispered. “With others from Japan?”

Yunho took a deep breath. “It might. I can’t guarantee it won’t.”

Changmin swallowed. “We’re too on edge to make a decision now. Let’s get out of here.”

“Spoken like a true Dominant.”

The sirens were much closer, and Yunho shimmered to his panther, Changmin following suit.

Yunho went to Kouyou’s body. The man had never been his friend. With a growl, he swiped at his crushed face and then followed Changmin’s black panther out of the store. A few of the officers saw them, but when they went inside, all they’d see is a dead cat. No human being. Even as a human, Kouyou was not really human.

A few weeks ago, some would have said the same about Yunho.

They ran to Sungmin’s house, catching up with the others just as the happy reunion between the girls and the cats happened.

Yuri was already a human, going right to the kitchen for a drink of water. There were deep, yet healing, claw marks on her ribs.

Yunho changed back as well. But Changmin stayed in his panther form for a little while, letting the other cats of his prowl gather close.

Yunho went to his mate and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You were so utterly and stupidly brave. You always have been.”

Yuri shoved him away. “Saved your ass, you ungrateful kitten.”

Yunho chuckled. “Yes, you did.”

Sungmin was next into his human form. “Is Changmin okay?”

“Mostly. The first kill is always the hardest.”

They watched Changmin struggle for a moment, and then he was human again, still on the floor. “This is all your fault,” he said, though he did not look directly at Yunho while he said it.

Yunho’s panther growled, and Yunho told him to shut up. “It is,” he said. “It may not be the last. I promised you that if your prowl was in danger that I would leave. So I am going to leave.”

“And go where?” Changmin asked. “To someone else? Endanger someone else?”

“We can’t stay here,” Yunho said.

Changmin was shaking as he moved into the kitchen. “You can. I ... I can’t ... I can’t ... Yunho, I can’t do that ... not again. Not.” He lurched and fell into Yunho’s arms, crying.

Yunho rubbed his back and held him up. When he calmed down enough, Yunho took them back into the other room and settled him on the couch. His mate threw a blanket over his body.

Yunho kneeled next to the couch. “What did you say a little while ago? We’re too on edge to make a decision. You and your prowl need to talk.”

“We can’t leave,” Yuri said and touched his shoulder. “We can’t leave them alone. What if someone followed Kouyou? What if he brought others with him?”

Sungmin was angry. Rightly so. Yunho shoved his cat deep in his soul to keep him from growling. The other two leopards and the girls were terrified.

Yunho took a deep breath. “You’re right. We cannot leave you unprotected. We’ll stay to make sure you are safe, and then we’re leaving.”

\---

Changmin stared at the piece of paper on his wall. So official. Framed in black. A single thing that represented the last two years of chaos in his life. It took a long time to get it. Or at least, it felt like a long time. Yuri had convinced him to take some time off after that mess with Kouyou. The stress, the guilt, and the constant distaste in his soul had Changmin easily giving up his leadership to Yunho. Sungmin still felt a bit angry, but Yunho understood. He could be awesome like that.

Changmin still felt guilty. For killing someone. For giving up being a leader. Yunho said he was strong. But he didn’t feel that way.

“You deserve that,” Yunho said, coming up beside him. He draped his arm over Changmin’s shoulder.

“Eh,” Changmin said with a shrug.

Yunho laughed. “PhD next? You’ll have plenty of time.”

“I think so. I doubt I’m going to be able to stretch out my knowledge of the collapse of the Jung Empire over the next five years or so though.”

“I did not have an empire.”

Changmin looked at him with an eyebrow lifted in disbelief.

“Okay, fine. So I did. But it hasn’t quite collapsed yet. You’ll have to postpone it until people actually realize that it has collapsed.”

“It’s getting messy over there. Police are all over the place, finding bodies. Their crime rate has almost doubled.”

Yunho took a deep breath. “Business wise it should be fine. All my old companies have new owners, but with the prowls ... I haven’t really said this out loud yet, not even to Yuri, but I fucked up. I was greedy and power-mad. And now those down the ranks are going to have to pay for it. It’s guilt that I am going to live with for the rest of my life. Which I rightly deserve.”

“Are you ever going to go back? Clean things up a bit?”

Yunho didn’t reply for a long time. Changmin read the words on his masters degree again.

“Only if I have to,” Yunho finally said.


End file.
